Timing was the key. Hadrian wanted Trajan to receive and read the letter only a few days before the first news of the outbreak of the war reached Rome. That way it would do little to change the emperor’s plans, but should stand out fresh in Trajan’s memory as a lone voice of clarity and sense in all the shock and confusion.
Decebalus has grown strong once more and will soon reveal himself as the enemy of the res publica. I humbly suggest that strong forces be concentrated here on the Danube under your personal supervision to deliver the much deserved – and I am sure final – punishment.
There was rarely harm in recommending what someone was planning to do in the first place. This was Trajan’s war and he would win it.
The masseur had stopped and Hadrian pushed himself up from the table. He gave the man a smile. The slave was one of the ugliest people Hadrian had ever seen, but also one of the finest at his trade.
‘Thank you, Sextus,’ Hadrian said. ‘That feels much better.’
Hadrian made up his mind. The letter would be sent in three days, which ought to mean that with luck it would reach the emperor by the end of the month. Trajan was always restless at this time of year, like anyone else with sense, itching to get away from Rome before the hot and muggy weather set in. When this emperor thought of travel, his mind went first to thoughts of camps and marching armies.
Yes, three days should be just right. That also gave time to consider every phrase to make sure that it was perfect.
XIX
‘I DO WISH that you would reconsider,’ Ferox said.
‘You are persistent,’ Sulpicia Lepidina told him, before prising an oyster from its shell. Ferox had learned by long practice not to wince at the sight. The Silures did not eat anything that came from the sea, lest it pollute their souls.
‘He is,’ Claudia Enica said. ‘Like a dog with a bone. So tiresome.’ Tonight she was once again the Roman lady, in a smooth silk dress so thin that it was like the drapes on a statue as she lay, propped up on her elbow. There was no one else on the couch, for with just the three of them dining each reclined alone.
‘There is unlikely to be another opportunity,’ he said. ‘You could come with us to meet the supply train, and then you and your whole household travel straight back with the escort to Dobreta.’
‘Take care that persistence does not stray into discourtesy,’ Sulpicia Lepidina told him. ‘As the wife of an officer it is my duty to stay.’
‘But you are not my wife, lady.’
‘Really,’ Claudia purred, ‘you used not to be so sure.’
Lepidina shot a glance at her friend. ‘Now, now, children, behave nicely.’ Until then, Ferox had almost been able to forget that he was dining with a former lover and a wife who still kept her distance.
‘I am no stranger to hardship or danger,’ Lepidina went on. ‘You of all people must know that. But the children and I have come this far to be with my husband. Soon either Cerialis will send for us to join him where he is or he will go to join his legion and either collect us on the way or send word. Until then, I should prefer to be here. The air is healthy for the children, although the soldiers spoil them, and I have the company of my dearest friend. That is a good deal more pleasant than the boredom of a town like Dobreta, filled with gossip and lonely officers on the prowl for any unaccompanied lady. I feel safe here.’
‘But I fear that is not true,’ Ferox said.
‘It had better be, husband!’ Claudia Enica toyed with a small table knife.
‘That was not my meaning,’ Ferox said, making a final effort with his last lever. ‘This fort is a long way from any help if we are attacked. The risk is too great for the children.’
Claudia Enica screwed up her face. ‘So we ladies no longer concern you? Callous man!’
Lepidina raised her voice as she ignored her friend. ‘The answer remains no. We – that is I – appreciate your concern, knowing it to be genuine and from the highest of motives. But I ask you to consider this as a soldier.
‘We are here, and have been for some time now. There are only three of my husband’s Batavians with us, the ones who came with our escort, but they talk with the others. Thanks in no small part to Claudia here…’
‘It’s always down to me,’ her friend preened like one of Lepidina’s cats.
‘As I was saying, thanks in some small part to my dear and immodest friend and her strange fascination with swords and killing, your men here are in good spirits.’
‘Trying to look up my skirt, that’s what it is – and that wretched flag. We all know where men do their thinking…’ came the muttered commentary from the other couch.
Sulpicia Lepidina waved an arm to hush her. ‘Sometimes your wit can be too dazzling, my dear! And sometimes you think that you are the only one with eyes and ears, Flavius Ferox. I have followed the standards for more than six years now, and I believe I have learned something about soldiers. These men may not like you, but they have come to trust you and they all sense that something is going to happen. That business with the catapult made plain to anyone that you expect trouble – bad trouble and soon. With you – and with this little spoiled school girl at your side – they reckon that they can win, or at least survive. If the trouble is as bad as you suspect, and I have little doubt that it is, for trouble seems to find you wherever you are, then you need every advantage you can find.
‘They’ve heard some of the stories about you. I’ve told several of the officers about an island far away, and a tower, and you and Vindex and that handful of men holding off hundreds of savages.’
‘There was a woman too, among those fighters,’ Claudia Enica added, respectful this time, for Brigita had fought at Ferox’s side.
‘Indeed there was – and now he has you at his side to distract him and poor little me to protect!’ Lepidina threw back her head in a great laugh that always came as a surprise from so poised a lady. ‘My point is that you give them hope. A thin, fragile hope perhaps, but hope still and that is a greater weapon than any one-armed catapult. You told me as much long ago.’
Ferox did not remember, but perhaps he had said something like that.
‘If I leave now, and take my children with me – even if I leave a silly girl behind to play soldiers – then what does that say?’ She stared at him, her blue eyes looking very dark in the lamplight. ‘It will tell them that you do not really believe after all, and that perhaps they are doomed and then that slender thread of hope snaps and cannot be repaired. What are all our chances then? Like it or not, you need us here. And I know my duty.’ Lepidina sighed. ‘There is something about you Flavius Ferox that always makes me sound like a schoolmaster lecturing a thick-headed boy.’
‘Sounds about right,’ Claudia said. ‘But even the dullest must see wisdom in the end when so patient a teacher explains. And you once told me, husband, that men without spirit will never win.’
‘I never realised I talked so much,’ he said, knowing that he had lost because they were right.
‘You do,’ Claudia Enica said. ‘When you are not sunk in sullen silence you prattle away like… well like a certain beautiful young queen.’
‘Hardly that, my dear,’ Lepidina said fondly. ‘Hardly that.’
Privatus interrupted them. ‘Excuse me, my lady, but you did ask me to interrupt. Young Marcus is not sleeping and the girl is worried about him.’